FYI

Expressions Music Academy in Troy is located at 4000 Livernois Road, on the corner of Wattles and Livernois. For more information about Expressions Music Academy, call 248 845 4611 (Troy) or 248 773 8346 (Novi) or visit expressionsmusicacademy.com.

Heather Davis started enrolling her children in Expressions Music Academy in Novi back when it had a different name and owner Jessica Schatz was giving lessons in her dad’s home.

From her home, Schatz taught Davis’ son Ade to play piano, the only instrument being offered at that time, since Schatz was the sole teacher. The conversion in 2010 to Expressions Music Academy in Novi, first called the Novi Piano Academy, brought several teachers who played different instruments.

As a result, Davis currently has three teenagers — Dayo, Omari and Jalen — enrolled in Expressions who all play different instruments. Even her husband, Hurley, takes drum lessons there.

Today, Schatz, 28, now owns two piano academies — one in Novi and a newly-opened location in Troy.

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How does it compare with other music institutions that provide lessons?

“It doesn’t,” Davis said. “Here, they get the kids involved in so many things. There’s so many different layers of the lessons, so my kids really love that they have incentives to practice.

I don’t remind my kids to practice. They are motivated by their teachers.”

The teaching staff plays a key role to the business, Schatz said. She hired employees through a rigorous process in which she made sure that they interact well with the students.

The teachers implement what Schatz calls a “music university experience,” where they do more than learn technique; they learn about multiple facets of music, she said. As part of its music lab, for example, Expressions has music education apps on iPads, designed to engage students of all ages.

Students can receive awards, based on their progression, through a program called “Bach Bucks.” Some students go on to compete in a regional event held by the American Guild of Music called the Great Lakes Regional. The event takes place at the end of April, and teachers have been helping their students prepare for it since January.

“That’s the big thing that’s going on right now,” said cello teacher Martin Guerra, a Houston native with a master’s degree in cello performance from the University of Michigan. “Some of the private lessons students are just a little on edge about it because it’s coming up in two to three weeks.”

All of Davis’ kids have brought back trophies from the competition, and they’ll be attending it this year as well.

Some of the instruments that instructors teach include piano, guitar, drums, strings, voice and erhu. Taught by world-renowned erhu player Xiao Dong (Vanessa) Wei, a soloist for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the erhu is a Chinese violin, offered only at the Novi location. Schatz hired additional teachers for the Troy location.

“We pay them well,” Schatz said, “we treat them well and the stick with us for a long time. They enjoy the community aspect of this place as much as the kids do. We’re all friends.”

Yet Guerra and Nicolette Devereaux, both of whom are 25 years old and started working for Expressions in 2011, have become more than friends — and will wed in August.

Devereaux teaches voice and choir, usually working with a group of students in show choir. The choir groups are determined by age.

“I’ve had a couple kids who’ve moved up from choir to the next and it’s been interesting to see them grow and change,” Devereaux said. “So definitely, like Martin said, the variety of what we get to teach and who we get teach is the best part.”

Unlike in school where band teachers may have to negotiate with other teachers so that a student can have time off for a recital, Expressions doesn’t seem to have that problem.

Because Expressions solely focuses on music education, both she and Guerra said all their students want to be there. They work with the student on an individual level to see whether they are enjoying the instrument, and to see which music the student would like to play.

“They want you to do not just what the teacher wants you to do, but they want to find out” what the students would like to work on and the music they enjoy, Davis said. “I think that’s part of what really kept my kids interested.”

The origins of Expressions

Schatz mostly focuses on making sure the business functions nowadays, but she’s always had a passion for teaching. She, for $5 per lesson, began teaching people to play piano as soon as she was old enough to drive.

Before the piano, Schatz said, the first people she taught were her three younger sisters. They were home-schooled and she ended up teaching them “a lot of stuff, like how to read,” she said.

Schatz, having just graduated from Rochester College with a bachelor’s degree in piano performance, opened the Novi Piano Academy in 2009. She spread the word through fliers and by word of mouth.

She had about 40 students enrolled at the Novi Piano Academy when she started to seriously discuss opening Expressions Music Academy with her dad. And he said she should do it. She wouldn’t have been able to open the businesses without her dad, Mark, she said. An accountant, he helps her with the landlords, taxes and other financial matters.

Expressions Music Academy has about 500 students now, which is one of the reasons for the Troy expansion.

Opened in January 2014, Expressions Music Academy in Troy, like the Novi location, has color-coded rooms, specific to each instrument. Only a few months into the new location, Schatz has plans to further expand Expressions to other locations, already.

“We’re not exactly sure or when yet, but not far from now,” Schatz said.